Judge questions train driver over crash in Spain

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AP) — The driver of a Spanish train that derailed at high speed was being questioned by a judge on Sunday as officials tried to determine if he was responsible for the accident, which killed 79 people.

The driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, 52, has been held by police on suspicion of negligent homicide. He has not been formally charged by a magistrate or made any official statements.

However, minutes after the crash, Mr. Garzon said that he had been going fast and couldn’t brake, a local resident who rushed to the scene of the accident said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

The resident, Evaristo Iglesias, said he and another person accompanied the blood-soaked Mr. Garzon to flat ground where other injured people were being laid out, waiting for emergency services to arrive.

“He told us that he wanted to die,” Mr. Iglesias told Antena 3 television. “He said he had needed to brake but couldn’t,” Mr. Iglesias said. He added that Mr. Garzon said that “he had been going fast.”

The train, carrying 218 passengers in eight cars, hurtled far above the 50-mph speed limit into a high-risk curve on Wednesday, tumbling off the tracks and slamming into a concrete wall, with some of the cars catching fire. The Spanish rail agency has said the brakes should have been applied 2½ miles before the train hit the curve.

On Sunday, Mr. Garzon was moved from the police station in the northwestern Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela, near where the accident occurred, to its courthouse just as the deadline for his 72 hours of detention was to expire.

Luis Alaez, the investigative judge, was to question the driver in private and was not expected to comment about it afterward. The judge also was to have access to the information contained in the train’s “black box,” which is similar to those found on aircraft, officials said.

Investigators must determine if Mr. Garzon failed to apply the brakes or whether it was a technical failure.

Previously Mr. Garzon exercised his right to remain silent when police tried to interview him, officials said. Spain’s state-run train company has described him as an experienced driver who knew the route well.

In its report about the accident, Antena 3 television showed a photograph of Mr. Iglesias in a pink shirt and cap helping to carry the driver after the train accident. The station also aired television footage of Mr. Iglesias working beside the wrecked train to help other survivors.

In the interview, Mr. Iglesias recalled Mr. Garzon’s words: “‘I don’t want to see this, I want to die,’ that’s what he said repeatedly,” Mr. Iglesias said. “‘I had to brake down to 80 and couldn’t,’” Mr. Iglesias quoted the driver as saying.

On Sunday the death toll from the train derailment rose to 79 after an injured passenger died in a hospital, a spokeswoman from the regional government of Galicia told The Associated Press.

A spokeswoman at the University Hospital complex in Santiago de Compostela confirmed the fatality of the unidentified victim.

Spanish national broadcaster RTVE said the person was an American woman but didn’t provide her name. The U.S. Embassy said that it would not comment until it could confirm what happened and communicate with the family of the victim.